We filmed in my house, my gazebo (which my husband built with his own hands!), and at the Econlockhatchee River. Altogether, there must be about four or five hours of tape; I sure hope they get two excellent minutes out of it--that's about my slot on the CD.

Larry, Scott, and Juan were all nice guys and very professional. Larry liked the banana bread I made (all right, Larry!). Speaking to a camera was a little challenging, but Scott and Larry provided good prompts for me to cover on film.

My mom served as my personal photographer that day, except when I snatched the camera from her and snapped one of her. Here's how the day went:

Lots of good things have been happening for Violet Raines recently: chosen as a Children's Book of the Month Club Selection; good reviews in Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, Orlando Magazine, and TeensReadToo; picked up by Scholastic Book Clubs and Scholastic Book Fairs; and I'm lined up for appearances at Stone Lakes Elementary, Lake Highland Preparatory School Book Fair, Urban Think! Bookstore book signing (my first!), First Books Panel at SCBWI Miami, and Trout Books book signing.

I bought one of those plasma balls to sit on my book table, the kind that emit electricity and little lightning bolts. I think students will love it! Also, I searched the world over and found these alligator trinkets to give away at my book signings.

First off, thank you to everyone for your kind emails and posts regarding my brother Chris. Your words of encouragement and hope mean a lot to me; I hold onto them as things are not quite settled around here. Because my brother was single, my sister, my mom, and I are settling his house, going through his things, and deciding what to do with his furniture. This is very hard.

I know a lot of you have lost somebody and it was hard on you, too. I am sorry for your loss. I wonder how it is for a husband or wife to live in the same house after their spouse died. I can only think it was hard at first but comforting later.

A long time ago, I bought this cheap little picture in a green frame for my brother. It showed a cartoon man in a bathtub, and the caption at the bottom read Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself. Chris hung that stupid picture in every apartment he ever lived in, and he last hung it in a prominent corner of the kitchen in his new house.

A Whole Lot of Lucky

me & jack

The Summer of Moonlight Secrets

Violet

Scholastic Book Trailer for Violet Raines

Thoughts on Writing

"If the doctor told me I had six minutes to live, I'd type a little faster." --Isaac Asimov

"It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up, because by that time I was too famous." --Robert Benchley

"When writers meet, they are truculent, indifferent, or over-polite. Then comes the inevitable moment. A shows B that he has read something of B's. Will B show A? If not, then A hates B; if yes, then all is well." --Cyril Connolly"Yes, it's hard to write, but it's harder not to." --Carl Van Doren

"Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." --Gene Fowler"I always write a good first line, but I have trouble writing the others." --MoliFre

"What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out of the window." --Burton Rascoe

"Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else." --Gloria Steinem

"I love being a writer; what I can't stand is the paperwork." --Peter De Vries

"This morning I took out a comma and this afternoon I put it back in again." --Oscar Wilde"I will tell you a story." --Jesus (Matthew 21:28, CEV)